Margaret Ralph, from Stamullen, Co. Meath has done something wonderful.

Margaret, who lives at St. Clare’s residential care facility for adults with significant learning disabilities, has long been a great supporter of ChildFund. Last summer, she decided to hold a coffee morning in St. Clare’s, with the aim of “helping the poor children in Africa”.

This fundraiser was a great success, with a large turnout of Margaret’s friends, family and staff at St. Clare’s resulted in raising an amazing €193!

The money raised from this event has been put to great use in the Worregen and Massa villages in Ethiopia. The projects in these villages used the money to build a fresh water spring feeding a water post.

For the first time, villagers can now come and collect safe water and be confident that it has not been contaminated by water borne diseases or wild and domestic animals.

Before they received the donation from Margaret’s coffee morning, many of the villagers used unprotected springs that were contaminated, meaning they were exposed to water borne diseases such as diarrhoea. In order to get clean fresh water, they had to travel many kilometres, which was difficult, dangerous, and took a long time each day. In particular mothers and older siblings of the village were required to walk more than half an hour and cross a forest to fetch clean water, which left them vulnerable en route.

The new safe water post has been a great contribution to these villages, and has provided better services for the children and families living there.

Below are some pictures of where the villagers used to collect water from a spring, and also shows the building of the new fresh water post – made possible as a result of Margaret’s generous donation.

The beginning of construction: men from both villages came together to begin clearing the area

The area for the new water spring has been prepared and clearly marked out by the villagers

Men and women of the village join together to begin digging the area to prepare the foundations of the water spring

The foundations of the fresh water spring have been built

Women from both villages come to collect clean, fresh water from the newly erected fresh water spring

We’d like to say a huge thank you to Margaret and all of those who donated, on behalf of all the people whose lives you have changed for the better.

If you want to help other other communities in need, please sponsor a child today.